GOP presses ahead in casting Soros as threat amid criticism that attacks are anti-Semitic


The billionaire philanthropist has long been a point of conversation for Fox network hosts and guests alike. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

Republicans pressed ahead in casting financier George Soros as a threat, shrugging off criticism that the attacks are anti-Semitic, days after a fervent supporter of President Trump was charged with sending a mail bomb to Soros’s home and a gunman opened fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

The National Republican Congressional Committee continued airing an ad Monday criticizing a Minnesota Democratic candidate and Iraq War veteran over his job at a foundation funded in part by Soros. The Michigan Republican Party promoted a digital ad depicting Soros among forces “looking to rig Michigan’s elections.”

On Friday, hours before the arrest and charges in the mail bomb case, the GOP nominee for Florida governor described what he called the threat posed by “Soros-backed activists.”

The attacks on the 88-year-old Soros, a multibillionaire who has underwritten left-leaning civic groups and political campaigns in the United States and abroad, come amid a larger effort by Republicans to portray protests on the political left as “mob” tactics as they seek to rouse base voters. But the attempted bombing of Soros and other prominent Democrats, and Saturday’s synagogue attack, have placed references to Soros in a darker light.

View the October 29 article by Mike DeBonis on the Washington Post website here.